Evergreen, through its Lyra Technology Group subsidiary, has launched a forward-deployed engineer program to help managed service providers deliver AI automation to SMB customers, with plans to place more than 50 engineers across its portfolio by the end of 2027.
Lyra deploys AI engineers across MSP portfolio
The initiative is a significant investment in AI talent for a market where smaller businesses often lack the engineering resources to move beyond experimentation. Sixteen engineers are already working across eight MSPs, with the program targeting more than 50 placements by the end of 2027. According to Lyra, its portfolio serves more than 15,000 businesses worldwide.
Unlike traditional consultants who advise customers on technology deployments, Lyra’s FDEs work full-time within individual MSPs. They collaborate with existing teams, study customer operations, and develop AI solutions for specific business problems.
“The hardest part of AI isn’t the technology. It’s the last mile,” said Dakota Ferguson, CEO of Lyra Technology Group.
Early deployment shows AI automation potential
One early example comes from Scribcor Global, a professional services company that relied heavily on email to coordinate work and manage customer requests.
Lyra’s MSP Outsource Solutions Group deployed a two-person team to develop Scribcor Central, an AI-powered email triage system built around the company’s existing workflows. The system saves approximately 45 minutes per employee each business day, freeing staff to focus on work requiring professional expertise and customer relationships.
The program also targets MSPs’ internal operations, allowing providers to use AI to improve their own efficiency while developing new services for customers. The approach follows Evergreen’s decentralized ownership model. Engineers remain attached to individual MSPs rather than operating through a centralized engineering department.
Forward-deployed engineering creates new MSP opportunities
Evergreen’s investment comes as forward-deployed engineering gains traction across the technology industry.
In an October report, Channel Insider’s Victoria Durgin examined how Amazon Web Services is expanding its FDE capabilities through dedicated engineering teams and partner training. A C&T study cited in that report projected a 2,100% increase in FDE demand in 2026, based on surveys of enterprise hiring executives.
AWS has also warned about “FDE washing,” where providers simply rebrand traditional consulting engagements without offering the engineering expertise and production results associated with the model.
Evergreen’s approach gives MSPs another route into this growing market. Rather than asking individual providers to recruit expensive AI engineering teams independently, the group is funding the talent across its portfolio.
Demand for FDEs could also change how MSPs compete for SMB customers. Traditional managed services largely revolve around maintaining infrastructure, managing security and keeping business applications running. Embedded AI engineers allow providers to influence the business processes those systems support.
That creates opportunities for recurring AI services, workflow automation and longer-term customer relationships. It could also help smaller MSPs compete for projects that would otherwise require the resources of larger systems integrators or consulting firms.
For MSPs, Evergreen’s investment points to a potentially important competitive advantage: the ability to combine trusted local customer relationships with dedicated AI engineering resources. That could become increasingly valuable as SMBs move from experimenting with AI to putting it to work across their businesses.